When they first set off the bomb,
They were not completely certain
That the chain reaction would stop
Before it had destroyed the whole world.
But they gave it a whirl, and we may now infer,
By the facts that I have sat here writing this
And that you are sitting there reading it,
That their explosion did indeed
Have its natural limits.
And so with good ideas—
For it is the nature of things
That they will not keep passing
From person to person until they
Have caught this whole world on fire,
Since it is the option of every one among us
That he may resist what is good if he so chooses,
With or without even understanding it first,
Stamping it out on his own front porch
Because he finds it inconvenient
Whether it’s good or not.
The activist and
The salesman and
The preacher may all
Dream that just one voice
Singing in the darkness would
Get things going across the world
But they forget that shining the light
On a person is simply not enough
To ensure that he will then
Turn his light on, too.
It comes down to
His rule by fiat
Over himself,
Such as it
May be.
And this,
Dear friends,
Is why we can’t
Have the good world
We find ourselves imagining,
For too many will opt out,
And forcing them in is
Not a manageable
Proposition.
It is as if each one were here to decide himself
Into a disposition comprised of his decisions—
Picking and showing his true colors over time
By what he accepts and rejects along the way.
And those of us
Who lean toward good
Simply learn to do our best—
And to convince the convincible—
To invest in that higher-minded world
To which we may go having finished up here—
To where no one would ever stamp out a good idea.
